Octopost or fence n forget?

Slight change of direction, excuse me @Friesanfan, has anyone used sweet chestnut posts on heavy clay land.
Our soil seems to eat anything, only getting 10 years from creoposts, longer from our own dipped creo/engine oil ones. Used to get 50 years from post war creo.
Are sweet chestnut as good as made out?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Slight change of direction, excuse me @Friesanfan, has anyone used sweet chestnut posts on heavy clay land.
Our soil seems to eat anything, only getting 10 years from creoposts, longer from our own dipped creo/engine oil ones. Used to get 50 years from post war creo.
Are sweet chestnut as good as made out?

What creosoted posts were they though. I bought a few ‘creosoted’ strainers locally to finish up a job. Most of it had washed off within a year, they were softwood and with next to no penetration of the creosote. Absolute rubbish.
However, the F&F strainers I had are still like new 8 years later (in wet, clay soils) and still seeping creosote on a hot day.

As to the chestnut, I have been pulling out chestnut stakes that have rotted off at ground level, as I’ve been refencing here. However, they have up to 3 lots of rusted out wire attached to them, where they have outlasted the wire several times over! They are still almost too hard to drive a nail into away from the ground contact area, and making lots of heat in the wood burner.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
It’s a disgrace the quality of wood posts. Why are they allowed to sell such crap. We have some runs which are all shot after about 5-7 years. Have some larch to put in who knows how long they will last. Is the wood in creosoted stuff the same as the others ?
Because farming no longer has any independent research institutes left they closed them all
NFU should have stepped in and stopped it
Trawscoed EHF used to put posts in every year for as long as I can remember and score them on how long they lasted
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
I've started replacing the wood post fences that I put up 15 years ago ?

Some of them have been rotten after less than 10 years!

I'm using metal stakes from McVeigh Parker. To hell with the expense, and how awful it's looks compared to a traditional wooden upright fence, these fences should outlast me ?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I've started replacing the wood post fences that I put up 15 years ago ?

Some of them have been rotten after less than 10 years!

I'm using metal stakes from McVeigh Parker. To hell with the expense, and how awful it's looks compared to a traditional wooden upright fence, these fences should outlast me ?

And you know that because the manufacturers claim it?

The manufacturers of Tuffdip & Postsavers made similar claims......
 

Northern territory

Member
Livestock Farmer
And you know that because the manufacturers claim it?

The manufacturers of Tuffdip & Postsavers made similar claims......
Very true. Is it the same for fence and forget. I know some creo stuff that will be 25 year ish and about gone now. Sheep can give things a bit of hammer over a lifetime.
 

TL100

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Wales
Are fence and forget stakes better than stakes from other BBH stockists or exactly the same?
I don't want to pay f&f delivery if I can collect the same thing more locally.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Are fence and forget stakes better than stakes from other BBH stockists or exactly the same?
I don't want to pay f&f delivery if I can collect the same thing more locally.
Go on Facebook and message them . I did and they asked for my postcode for nearest stockists. Ask them if they all stock the same post . If your worried. The message back straight away
 

mezz

Member
Location
Ireland
Scanpole/BBH are pushing their new range of machined round posts.
Trouble is they machine off the softwood which gives flexibility and takes the treatment thus creating a weaker/poorer treated posts which is no better than octoposts.
You can still get proper cundy posts from them but they're pricing them higher to get you to buy the machined round.
Worst of all they won't stand by poorly treated posts and are quickly throwing away their reputation as a supplier of quality.☹

I bought some Latvian machined round posts, because they were cheaper. Although the pressure treatment was fine I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the timber, some of the posts were much lighter than they should have been and seemed to be suffering from decay. The natural rough posts were all high quality and denser.

I later heard that a lot of the machined posts mostly come from windfallen forests and there could be some dead wood mixed in with it. There seems to be quite a lot of windfall in Scandanivia, which apparently why the machined posts are being pushed.
 

jellybean

Member
Location
N.Devon
Scanpole/BBH are pushing their new range of machined round posts.
Trouble is they machine off the softwood which gives flexibility and takes the treatment thus creating a weaker/poorer treated posts which is no better than octoposts.
You can still get proper cundy posts from them but they're pricing them higher to get you to buy the machined round.
Worst of all they won't stand by poorly treated posts and are quickly throwing away their reputation as a supplier of quality.☹
I think I have said this before but regarding machine turned posts you have to ask yourself why anybody would incur extra expense in machine turning. The answer of course is money. Two extra incomes to be precise. They can get 25-30% greater number of posts on the transport and they also have wood chips to sell. What does the farmer get? An inferior post with some of the structural integrity machined out of it. A weaker post because of reduced diameter which will suffer breakages when post driving far more than a Cundy peeled pole. A natural Cundy pole will have a much bigger diameter at ground level which is where it needs it for resistance to snapping from livestock pressure.

Farmers of course are their own worst enemy here, nearly always looking for a "bargain" instead of asking "How much will this fence cost me per year over the next 30 years?" It is of no importance what the fence costs initially, it's the cost per year that counts. And don't forget that nobody likes pulling out your old fences from the hedges before they can put you up another short term fix, so you should add that expense to your annual cost.
 

Paddington

Member
Location
Soggy Shropshire
A chap who delivers here is also a farmer and had looked at creosote posts. He bought some from a mid Wales supplier, can't remember the name, but they were cheaper than Fn'F and he was happy until he picked up one of our Fn'F posts which had been outside for several months. The Fn'F posts were much heavier than his.
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
Are fence and forget stakes better than stakes from other BBH stockists or exactly the same?
I don't want to pay f&f delivery if I can collect the same thing more locally.
No, same things. Originally it was pretty much only f n f selling posts out of bbh now every man and his dog is a supplier.
I'd recommend try and avoid the machined stuff and go for cundy although there is a bit of a price difference.
 
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Y Fan Wen

Member
Location
N W Snowdonia
I'm using metal stakes from McVeigh Parker. To hell with the expense, and how awful it's looks compared to a traditional wooden upright fence, these fences should outlast me ?
I was very surprised at how Clipex blends into the landscape compared to timber. I put one up which was about 100 yards from the public highway. After finishing it I drove round to see what it looked like and had to concentrate in order to see it.
 

theboytheboy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Portsmouth
Slight change of direction, excuse me @Friesanfan, has anyone used sweet chestnut posts on heavy clay land.
Our soil seems to eat anything, only getting 10 years from creoposts, longer from our own dipped creo/engine oil ones. Used to get 50 years from post war creo.
Are sweet chestnut as good as made out?
That's what we use on our place and we are pretty heavy land. Luckily we have a chestnut post supplier nextdoor.
 

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